Home › Entities › written_work › The Peter Principle

The Peter Principle

book and concept by Laurence J. Peter that states that people in a hierarchy tend to rise to "a level of respective incompetence"
Book written_work Q497359

Facts

8 properties
Instance of
written work, creative work, sociological theory, paradox, Wikimedia article covering multiple topics, Epigrammatic law[4][5][6][7][8]
Author
Laurence J. Peter, Raymond Hull[2][3]
Language of work or name
English[10]
Facet of
organizational behavior studies[14]
Main subject
management, incompetence, hierarchical organization[11][12][13]
Named after
Laurence J. Peter[9]
Subtitle
Why Things Always Go Wrong, ou pourquoi tout va toujours mal[17][18]
Title
The Peter Principle, Le Principe de Peter[15][16]
🏷️ Also known as
en The Peter Principle en Peter Principle ar مبدا بيتر ar Peter Principle ar مبدأ بيتر cs Peterův princip da Peter's princip da Peters princip da Peter-princippet de Peter-Prinzip de Unfähigkeitsprinzip de Peterprinzip de Peter Prinzip es Principio de Peters es Principio de Peter fa اصل پیتر fi Peterin periaate fi tolvanatiheys fr Le Principe de Peter fr Loi de Peter
🔖 Identifiers · 16
VIAF cluster ID
175749567
Library of Congress authority ID
no2026117359
BBC Things ID
f941ea9f-569b-44ec-98fe-103d1b6e3d15
Encyclopædia Britannica Online ID
topic/The-Peter-Principle-Why-Things-Always-Go-Wrong
Freebase ID
/m/063y0
Great Norwegian Encyclopedia ID
Peter-prinsippet
Investopedia term ID
p/peter-principle
JSTOR topic ID (archived)
peter-principle
LC and MARC vocabularies ID
ethnographicTerms/afset013537
Lex ID
Peter-princippet
Libraries Australia ID
35532014
LibraryThing work ID
88122
Show all 16 identifiers +4
Microsoft Academic ID (discontinued)
183269055
Open Library ID
OL31341233W
Quora topic ID
Peter-Principle-4
Vikidia article ID
fr:Principe_de_Peter

Report an error or request removal Lineage (PROV-JSON)

🔗 Connections
Instance of 3
paradox, sociological theory, creative work
Main subject 3
management, hierarchical organization, incompetence
Author 1
Laurence J. Peter
Created notable works 1
Laurence J. Peter
Facet of 1
organizational behavior studies
Language of work or name 1
English
Named after 1
Laurence J. Peter
← Inspired by 1
Dilbert principle
Press Enter · cited answer in seconds

Summary

The Peter Principle is a written work[1].

Related Entities

Laurence J. Peter management

References

Programmatic citations — every numbered marker resolves to a verifiable graph row below.

Direct Wikidata claims

  1. [4] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  2. [5] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  3. [6] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  4. [7] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  5. [8] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  6. [2] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  7. [3] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  8. [9] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  9. [10] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  10. [11] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  11. [12] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  12. [13] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  13. [14] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  14. [15] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  15. [16] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  16. [17] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  17. [18] ↑ . wikidata.org.

Class ancestry

  1. [1] ↑ . Wikidata. wikidata.org.

📑 Cite this page

Use these citations when quoting this entity in research, articles, AI prompts, or wherever provenance matters. We aggregate Wikidata + Wikipedia + authoritative open-data sources; the stitched, scored, cross-referenced view is what 4ort.xyz contributes.

APA 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph. (2026). The Peter Principle. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://4ort.xyz/entity/the-peter-principle
MLA “The Peter Principle.” 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph, 4ort.xyz, 4 Nov. 2026, https://4ort.xyz/entity/the-peter-principle.
BibTeX @misc{4ortxyz_the-peter-principle_2026, author = {{4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph}}, title = {{The Peter Principle}}, year = {2026}, url = {https://4ort.xyz/entity/the-peter-principle}, note = {Accessed: 2026-11-04}}
LLM prompt According to 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph (aggregator of Wikidata, Wikipedia, and authoritative open-data sources): The Peter Principle — https://4ort.xyz/entity/the-peter-principle (retrieved 2026-11-04)

Canonical URL: https://4ort.xyz/entity/the-peter-principle · Last refreshed:

Edit History

Rolling log of changes to this entity's Wikidata record. Values shown reflect the current state of each edited property — follow the history link to see the precise diff for any edit.

  1. 14d ago · LccnBot bot · 2026-10-23 view diff on Wikidata ↗
    Wikipedia languages → ['ar', 'bg', 'bs', 'ca', 'commons', 'cs', 'da', 'de', 'en', 'es', 'eu', 'fa', 'f
    Sitelink count → 43
    Library of Congress authority ID → no2026117359
    Claims rich → —
    "/* wbsetclaim-create:1||1 */ Library of Congress authority ID: no2026117359, Add P244 Library of Congress LCCN External Identifier"
  2. 17w ago · Sanjeev bot bot · 2026-07-10 view diff on Wikidata ↗
    Aliases → —
    Facet of → organizational behavior studies
    Instance of → —
    Named after → Laurence J. Peter
    + 5 other properties edited (see Wikidata diff for full list)
    "/* wbeditentity-update:0| */ Bot: +hiwiki sitelink"
Live feed via Wikidata EventStreams. New edits appear within minutes of being made on Wikidata.